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Sunday, January 24, 2016

Tumbler Progress: Almost three hours more 14 lines a new bobbin started

Continuing with my details on this project...

This time I just clicked to see what time it was when I finished a line. I was able to finish the other side of the quilt with the mainly single lines of angles. So I just now need to add the second lines of angles to the top and I'll be done.

Today was different than the other days as I did all the sewing in one session. Our son's little dog kept me company. I thought I had taken photos her on the quilt, but nothing was on the camera when I offloaded the quilt photos. She came in the room and sat on the chair I had on the side, then all of a sudden she was in my lap and climbed up to sit on the quilt! I got her to move to a pair of jeans that I put on the table for a while. Then she was back in my lap, but finally she moved back to the chair and curled up to sleep next to me while I worked.

I started at 1:06 and finished at 4:00. During that time I sewed 14 lines of angles going down the side of the quilt, a single straight line at the end of that side, ran out of bobbin, so filled two bobbins, hid the mid-line bobbin thread, trimmed the thread for the new lines completed. Whew!

After 14.5 hours of quilting. There are a few places with the double lines in the angles too.

Of course now I realize my detail shots

don't show the double angles....

Can really see lots of progress now! I'm on bobbin 5.5.

I went to Road to California yesterday with some ladies I sew with during the once a month Saturday sewing group. We pretty much stayed together while we went up and down the many rows of the vendor area. So many things to see, it really became a blur! (One of the ladies had been there since Sunday taking classes everyday. She was staying on until this Sunday. It's her second year doing this, she says she learned so much that it's a wonderful week.) I was just there to see the vendor area - and also got to see some of the show quilts. As I went to the vendors I was on the look out for Creative Grids Rulers – $20 Triangle Squared and $18 Perfect Rectangle ones. that were called for in the Facets Quilt Along that I'm planning on working on. I found some pretty much the same sized ones by Tri-Recs - I got the set for just $5. That was a deal. I also got a bunch of long zippers for all the future pillows I may be making - each for just fifty cents! Another deal. I gave that man my email to put my name on his email list. He says he has no sales tax and free shipping deals every once in a while so I thought that would be a good list to be on.Road to California Expenses

Anyway to get back to my tumbler quilting, the lady taking all the classes mentioned that some sewing machines with a needle up or down option also slightly lift the pressure foot when it stops in needle down to make it easier to readjust fabric. The machine I'm using doesn't have this feature, but I realized I had not always been lifting the pressure foot to change the angle when going down the lines, and that, I think, contributed to my puckering in the stitching. Those initial lines of stitching are not even close to being a quarter of an inch. I don't know why I didn't see that before. Anyway, it seems to make a big difference even now if I do not lift the foot when I turn the fabric. So that is something else I have learned.When changing the angle of a stitching line, be sure to lift the foot!Previous things I learned or relearned recently are:

wind bobbins ahead of time

do any straight stitching before doing angles

shorten the stitch length at the beginning and end of a line of stitches

bring phone battery to conference so you can take photos! (I did but am sure that other people have posted better ones)

bring writing pad and pen or pencil to write down booth numbers that have items you might want to purchase or follow up on!

if the table you put up next to the sewing machine isn't the same height, and the quilt keeps getting caught in between, put something under the lower table so they are the same height. (I put a pair of old jeans that will become a board game block underneath today and it made it so much nicer to not have to fight the quilt being caught.)

put something underneath or in front of the foot peddle to stop it from traveling as you sew.

To see previous posts about my tumbler project search for tumbler in the label and sort by date!

Those lessons it seems like I have to re-learn every time I quilt a big quilt. I didn't think about the turning, but now that I look at the quilt again, I can see that there are a lot of turns in this quilt. The quilting is fabulous though and is really adding life to your project.

I'm hoping by really upping the time I sew and quilt that I'll start to remember things - the lessons learned. But seems good to write down too as a reminder...

I have new appreciation for this quilt design! It really is a lot of turning for each of the corners of the pieces. Can't believe how long it was basted before I worked up the nerve to start this quilting! It's so nice to have the Once a Month and Finish A-long links to give me direction to work on this and the other projects too.